Is Your Customer Paying Attention?

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Is Your Customer Paying Attention?

Life moves fast. Blurry images pass us by as we travel, interact and just seek to keep up. Marketing becomes invisible and attention is scarce.

Everything is easy. That’s the credit of great technology, engineering and tools. Yet, the irony is that only a few messages will connect and appeal. This is where the battle is. It is not in engineering and tools. It is in design and creativity.

Andy Andy Warhol said, “The best art is good business.” Businesses today must practice art as a way to connect. The automatons, copycats and “color-in-the-lines” crowd are being left behind. They are losing customers at the very point it matters most – the first impression and buying experience. You must get attention and build with credibility to win in the attention economy. Your customer is bored. How will you make your value an experience to buy?

We Are Not Paying Attention


The businesses that struggle today typically are out of touch. They have learned a mere selling process which fulfills demand. Today’s customer has too many choices at their fingertips and touchscreen. While a selling process may have worked in the past, the new economy demands a buying process. No one wants to be sold. We love to buy if the experience woos us. We have too many choices otherwise.

Buyers are going to compare you with something I feel safe with.Buyers are going to compare you with something I feel safe with. A buyer wants some-thing based on what they are looking for. They can find anything on the internet. Think about Google’s success. Google has become a multi-billion dollar company based on search. The web is an enormous amount of data which organizes itself through search. We do not buy like we used to – retail stores, yellow pages, newspapers, magazines, catalogs, etc. We start by Googling what we are looking for. The buyer initiates the process. They have in mind what they are looking for and can instantly search for it.

People wish the internet would go away. It will not. It continually grows and is refined. It is a continual moving target. People are connected not only at computers, but also with mobile devices. The world has become “just-in-time.”

As a seller, if you are not changing with the behaviors and processes a buyer is taking, then the spoils of a sale will be with your competitor who is focused on buying pro-cesses. This requires thinking and execution of a web strategy which connects with inattentive buyers and nurtures trust. It is selling by design.

Help, I Want To Buy


In 2003, a company who put adwords into action would get business. Then competitors started getting the hint and posting their adwords. Typically, the adwords pointed to a company’s website home page. Adwords are no longer a secret. Everyone figured out they could buy leads and measure results.

As buyers, we had a different world. There were not a hundred emails in our inbox. We studied the brochure websites laid out for us by sellers. We were attentive.

The multiple variables which have aThe multiple variables which have affected us as buyers and the dynamics of web pre-sentation have changed in a short amount of time. Studies continue to show a shorter interval of attention on web pages. We are clickers and we do not stay long on one page as we used to. Thus, the simple strategy of putting up adwords, having a prospect click, and go to a home page used to lead to sales. Today, this strategy only leads to spending unnecessary advertising dollars.

The process, message, design, and overall experience must engage the prospect’s senses immediately without requiring work. It has to be clean design towards a singular result. This is the buying process which must be designed for any new economy com-pany to succeed. The steps have to be thought through and the message must be relevant quickly. Communications for follow-up based on a customer’s actions must be just-in-time. Most salespeople can recognize that late follow-up decreases the opportu-nity to close a sale. This is because time creates irrelevance. There is an urgency and a

Are You There When Your Customer Wants To Buy?


point to a buyer’s search. This wears away as distractions displace the mindshare of the prospect.

The website experience of a prospective buyer must be one in which they are commu-nicated with based on their actions. These can be measured explicitly from data inputs at the website or they can be gathered via smart systems which trigger off of pre-programmed rules. It is a process of design which must execute the timing of communi-cations which is relevant and timel

Are You There When Your Customer Wants To Buy?


It is easy to put up a website just to have something out there. It is easy to send an email and communicate. It is easy to get things done. However, getting the right things done is an art. It takes talent, focus and an acumen regarding the nuances of your buyer. You are ignored when you are not relevant. When you do not date your customer and only want to marry them, you become irrelevant quickly. The customer is looking for information at the very beginning stages. If you are not positioned correctly and you provide closing documents, then you miss the customer. You are ignored.

Furthermore, we have more than we need of anything.Furthermore, we have more than we need of anything. There are too many coffee shops, tennis shoes, software, magazines, insurance and sports equipment. We can find what we need, and there is always a competitor. Thus, the customer sees every-thing as a commodity. If your value offering does not rise above the commodity noise and is presented in such a way to help the customer perceive a difference, then you are ignored. It all looks the same.

Being ignored is the consequence of not being remarkable. Remarkable requires con-necting with the emotions of the prospect instantly. It is the difference between great art and obscure photographs. It must resonate and help the prospect connect emotionally.

Avoid Being Ignored


Helping the customer understand their problem and articulating it is critical. If you are world class, you will help me buy. The problem is well presented.

What is the problem that your product or service is seeking to solve? Is it boredom, pain, health, anxiety, or inconvenience among many possibilities? Be concrete. The problem defines your opportunity. You are ignored if the problem is not presented in a way which makes the prospect desire what they perceive as valuable.

If you resonate, the prospect will want to engage and know what the next step is. Sites If you resonate, the prospect will want to engage and know what the next step is. Sites that create a menu of choices hinder the buying process and jeopardize opportunities. We shut down when presented too many choices. Help your prospect buy through concrete, individual choices. The choices arise from thinking through the process. Too many choices repel the buyer. Is the next step a meeting? A white paper? A phone call? Make it concrete. Make it make sense. Make it simple.

Avoid Being Ignored - (continued)


The first encounter your customer has with your brand has little to do with ordering your service or product. It is primarily about obtaining information in order to make a decision. You must have valuable information which helps them do the following:

* See your brand as the thought leader in your domain * Remember your presentation – look and feel of your site and visual experience * Easily access information via clicks, layout, etc. * Make the next steps simple and concise * Frame how to make a decision and make the decision for you, not your competitor * Frame how to make a decision and make the decision for you, not your competitor * See you as different beyond price

Your customer gathers information in the first stages of buying. They are looking to who provides this value in a way that helps them absorb and decide on information.

TTry shopping for a service like yours by starting in Google. See what you can remember or navigate. It is likely you will encounter aggressive sales pitches, cluttered information sites or unclear next steps. This is where the battle is won or lost. The design of the first encounters must stay in step with the buyer’s mindset just as a dancing partner has to keep in step for an elegant experience on the dance floor. Your customer is not ready to buy on the first date. They are looking for credibility and ease of use. That is critical and this is where design, rather than information, prevails to communicate the value proposition.proposition.

What Your Customer Does With Information


Have you ever thought about why a sales person exists? In an ideal world, a person wanting to solve a problem would buy based on perfect information and choice. In the old economy, the sales person served to fill this gap. The world was far from perfect; we needed a concierge to help educate us and make choosing simpler.

In the new economIn the new economy, the world is becoming more perfect. Getting information is easier. However, the definition of problems specifically can still be difficult. Very few brands or companies articulate the buyers’ problem concretely. The brands that do this are effective at connecting with buyers and helping them say, “Yes.” In this model, the sales person loses her value, just as Expedia has displaced the travel agent. Self-service meets the goal and enables the buyer to get to the decision point faster.

Think about why you may have sales people within your business. What if their function Think about why you may have sales people within your business. What if their function was systematized and made easy for a 24/7 experience for the buyer. Your buyer wants to buy when they want with minimal engagement. They engage when they feel ready, enlightened and intelligible. Think about the mass amount of money drug companies have poured into education and promotion in order to change the dialogue between doctor and patient.

An eAn effective buying website will make the job of the sales person easier by preparing the buyer to be in a buying discussion. Positioning with process is a powerful combination which alleviates the expensive need for the sales rep taking on burdens once assigned to them by inefficient systems.

No Sales Rep Needed


Too often websites present the solution before identifying the problem. The design and flow of how you present your value proposition must be preceded by your identification with the customer’s pain.

Imagine going to a doctor, and she starts to prescribe drugs without hearing about your pain. This would be ridiculous in medicine. It is no different in business. A one-size-fits-all presentation of the solution misses the buyer. The buyer must feel you identifying with their pain.

If you sell a service, describe the problem first:If you sell a service, describe the problem first:

* Do you struggle with getting a customer? * Are you feeling depressed continuously? * Are you having difficulty connecting with your teenager? * Are you technology systems more of a burden than asset?

Identifying with your customeIdentifying with your customer’s pain is about them. It is not about you. Giving solutions before understanding someone’s pain misses the buying experience. It moves assumptively into selling without permission.

It is critical to gain permission before offering anything of value. The virtual experience must connect with pain. Push on the pain through articulation and visual communication. If the customer agrees with you in that you precisely pushed on the pain, then your solution becomes enticing.

What Is My Problem


Get To The Core


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Is Your Customer Paying Attention?